Did Neandertals Paint Early Cave Art?
via 3quarksdaily by Azra Raza
Michael Balter in Science: The basic questions about early European cave art – who made it and whether they developed artistic talent swiftly or slowly – were thought by many researchers to have been settled long ago: Modern humans made the paintings, crafting brilliant artworks almost as soon as they entered Europe from Africa. Now dating experts working in Spain, using a technique relatively new to archaeology, have pushed dates for the earliest cave art back some 4000 years to at least 41,000 years ago, raising the possibility that the artists were Neandertals rather than modern humans. And a few researchers say that the study argues for the slow development of artistic skill over tens of thousands of years.
Read the full story which doesn’t contain enough images to suit my taste!
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
We are living a contradiction: In an age of instant communication, we suffer from unprecedented alienation. Is Facebook making us lonely?...more
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A challenge and a solution
via The National Archives blog by Sarah VanSnick
As a conservator, my favourite archival material has always been photographs. There’s just something magical about photography’s mixture of chemistry and artistry that particularly captures my imagination. Therefore, I’d like to share one of the photographic projects we’re tackling in the Collection Care studio.
Continue reading »
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“In Praise of Virginity” Up for Auction at Sotheby’s
via Reading Copy Book Blog by Beth Carswell
Vanity is a tough pitfall to avoid, apparently even for seventh-century nuns. The Telegraph reports that on July 10th 2012, Sotheby’s London is offering 60 lots on the auction block, comprising selections from the manuscript collection of Martin Schøyen. The lots include many historically and literarily significant pieces, including a leaf from an ancient manuscript of Homer’s Iliad [you really don’t want to look at the price] and a number of appealing and fascinating choices from the Dark Ages.
Continue reading here.
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Afterlife of an artist. When a genius dies, trouble ensues. Those charged with protecting the maestro’s legacy so very often screw it up...more
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Measurable Outcomes vs. Higher Education
via Big Think by Peter Lawler
So I’ve been getting a lot of articles and essays and rants emailed to me on higher education. Based on my previous posts, the impression seems to be that I’m some kind of educational rebel, railing against all the mainstream trends and the administrators and their experts who are pushing them.
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I did think about putting this item into the mainstream of my blog but then I thought that the miscellany is supposed to be educative as well as a bit of fun! So here it stays.
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Lugger Landing: 1906
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive - Vintage Fine Art Prints
Along the Mississippi circa 1906
“Oyster luggers at New Orleans”
8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company
View original post (where you can see a larger view and the always informative comments)
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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
“We shape our buildings,” Churchill said, “and afterwards our buildings shape us.” He might also have said: We shape our technologies, and afterwards our technologies shape us...more
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The business end of a sea urchin
via Boing Boing by Maggie Koerth-Baker
How’s this for an amusing case of photographic mis-identification? Call it “Dueling Disgustingness”. Last week, New Scientist posted this lovely image of a blue-spotted sea urchin, taken by nature photographer David Fleetham.
New Scientist identified the photo as depicting said sea urchin in the process of expelling its own guts out of its mouth. Gross, but okay. That’s reasonable. A surprising number of underwater animals eat in this manner, using the acids in their guts to dissolve prey before they actually slurp it up as a slurry.
But, at the Echinoblog, Smithsonian invertebrate zoology researcher Christopher Mah makes a compelling case against New Scientist’s interpretation. That’s not actually the sea urchin’s mouth, says Mah. In fact, it’s the opposite. That’s a (rare) photo of a sea urchin taking a dump.
Mah has a lot of good photos that make his case quite well. You should check them out. Then, join me in contemplating this thought: If Mah is right, doesn’t sea urchin poop look a lot like Dippin’ Dots?
The New Scientist blog post featuring lots of cool info about sea urchins
Christopher Mah’s analysis of the photo, explaining why he thinks it shows a pooping sea urchin, rather than one that is eating something.
David Fleetham’s website – for more (less disgusting) photos of nature
Via Scicurious
And I wasn’t even mildly curious as to whether the thing was eating or excreting. I simply saw the pattern and the colours!
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A Dialogue with the Tempter
via Big Think by Adam Lee
At the end of a long and weary day, with the last drops of twilight bleeding out of the darkening midsummer sky, I turned my key in the lock of my front door. I set my bags down, stepped inside... and paused, one foot on the threshold. I was certain I had shut off all the lights before leaving that morning, but my home wasn’t fully dark.
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